We loved Cup of Jo’s recent “8 Things We Swear By” post for providing a snapshot of personalities and neat things to try. Just for fun, and to let you get to know our team a bit better, we’re doing our own series with an art therapy & self care bent. 

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Art Therapist Adele Stuckey is Alexandria Art Therapy’s founder and Clinical Director. Adele specializes in working with people seeking support in a LGBTQIA+ affirming space for perinatal mental health, trauma recovery, and overall wellbeing. 

Here, Adele shares 8 things she loves…

1. Daily Ritual: Pulling a card of the day. I recently returned to a tarot/oracle card practice in which I pull a card for the day and jot down some thoughts in a journal. Typically this takes me 10 minutes and is a moment to pause, reflect, and get curious about messages in the collective unconscious, slightly woo-woo realm. My current rotation includes the decks created by Kim Kranz. 

2. Artwork: Currently admiring the work of ceramic artists like Nicole Dacey (and appreciating her humorous reels). 

3. Art Supply: My new favorite magazine for collage artwork (my go-to process for creative journaling) is Ernest Journal.

4. Inspiring Space: Glenstone is on my list to visit. In the meantime, short moments in nature have been a space for inspiration.

5. Song: Currently listening to Arlo Park's album Collapsed in Sunbeams on repeat.

6. Scent: Cinnamon Project's 8PM incense.

7. Book: KC Davis’s How to Keep House while Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing. Another I've been recommending lately is Jenara Nerenberg’s  Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World that Wasn't Designed for You. 

8. Aha Moment: In my exploration with tarot and archetypes, shadow work is a part of the process – the concept that with light exists darkness and the ability to rework the narratives of good, bad, light, dark, and the existence of the in-between. As an art therapist, the work of M.C. Escher comes to mind. This quote speaks to this exploration and the imagery is quite rich. “Are you sure that a floor cannot also be a ceiling?” 

“In my prints I try to show that we live in a beautiful and orderly world and not in a chaos without norms, as we sometimes seem to. My subjects are also often playful. I cannot help mocking all our unwavering certainties. It is, for example, great fun deliberately to confuse two and three dimensions, the plane and space, or to poke fun at gravity. Are you sure that a floor cannot also be a ceiling? Are you absolutely certain that you go up when you walk up a staircase?”
- M.C. Escher, On Being a Graphic Artist', 1953

Have you been considering therapy or been sitting on a waiting list? Adele now has immediate openings for new individual and couples clients. Learn to move through the “stuck” feelings and access a more grounded, fulfilling life. 

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